In alternative embodiments, the invention provides compositions and methods for overcoming or diminishing or preventing Growth Factor Inhibitor resistance in a cell, or, a method for increasing the growth-inhibiting effectiveness of a Growth Factor inhibitor on a cell, or, a method for re-sensitizing a cell to a Growth Factor inhibitor, comprising for example, administration of a combination of a TBK1 inhibitor and an RTK inhibitor. In alternative embodiments, the cell is a tumor cell, a cancer cell or a dysfunctional cell. In alternative embodiments, the invention provides compositions and methods for determining: whether an individual or a patient would benefit from or respond to administration of a Growth Factor Inhibitor, or, which individuals or patients would benefit from a combinatorial approach comprising administration of a combination of: at least one growth factor and at least one compound, composition or formulation used to practice a method of the invention, such as an NFKB inhibitor, such as a lenalidomide or a REVIAMID, or IKK inhibitor; or an inhibitor of Galectin-3.

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for determining whether a cell is resistant to one or more drugs. Also, disclosed herein are methods and systems for monitoring the treatment of a cancer patient to determine whether the cancerous cells being treated are resistant to the treatment. Further, disclosed herein are methods and systems for predicting the responsiveness of a cell to a drug. Also, disclosed herein are methods and systems to determine the rate of the efficacy of a chemotherapeutic drug on a cancerous, neoplastic or damaged cells

This disclosure relates to methods for isolating bacterial cells, fungal cells, and single-celled parasites present in a blood sample containing higher eukaryotic cells; particularly wherein the microorganisms are present at a concentration significantly lower than the eukaryotic cells in the sample.

A method of rapidly evaluating the susceptibility of a strain of bacteria to a cell wall synthesis inhibiting antibiotic based on an assessment of cell enlargement in response to doses of the cell wall synthesis inhibiting antibiotic which are correlated to breakpoints of bacterial susceptibility.

Use of acetylated tubulin as a biomarker for predicting the response to a compound, preferably resistance of a disease such as cancer in a subject to said compound, wherein the compound is a furazanobenzimidazoles compound of general formula (1).

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Specific peptides, and derived ionization characteristics of those peptides, from the Bcl-2-like protein 11 (BIM) are provided that are particularly advantageous for quantifying the BIM protein directly in biological samples that have been fixed in formalin by the method of Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) mass spectrometry, or what can also be termed as Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM). Such biological samples are chemically preserved and fixed where the biological sample is selected from tissues and cells treated with formaldehyde containing agents/fixatives including formalin-fixed tissue/cells, formalin-fixed/paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue/cells, FFPE tissue blocks and cells from those blocks, and tissue culture cells that have been formalin fixed and or paraffin embedded. A protein sample is prepared from the biological sample using the Liquid Tissue reagents and protocol, and the BIM protein is quantitated in the Liquid Tissue sample by the method of SRM/MRM mass spectrometry by quantitating in the protein sample at least one or more of the peptides described. These peptides can be quantitated if they reside in a modified or an unmodified form. An example of a modified form of a BIM peptide is phosphorylation of a tyrosine, threonine, serine, and/or other amino acid residues within the peptide sequence.

The present invention broadly provides different compositions, kits, vectors, and methods including monoclonal antibodies directed to epitopes found within lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannoside 6 (PIM6) for the diagnosis and treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections.

The invention relates to the determination of resistances of microorganisms which produce -lactamases, in particular extended spectrum -lactamases (ESBL). The invention provides a method whereby the microbial resistance can be measured very simply and quickly by means of the catalytic effect of the microbially produced -lactamases on -lactam antibiotics, which consists in a hydrolytic cleavage of the -lactam ring. The method determines the resistance of the bacteria a few hours after a suitable substrate, either a -lactam antibiotic or a customized -lactam derivative, has been added to a suspension of the microbes, by direct mass spectrometric measurement of the substrate breakdown caused by the -lactamases.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), small compounds that often exhibit broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, are garnering interest as potential therapeutics against antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens. Development of new AMPs is arduous due to the practical limitations of classical protein-based discovery approaches. A high throughput bioinformatics approach is described which is able to confirm identification of known AMPs from the North American bullfrog (Rana (Lithobates) castebeiana) genome, and a bioinformatics approach is used to develop new AMPs, as described herein as SEQ ID NOs: 1-178. The described AMPs exhibit antimicrobial activity against Mycobacterium smegmatis via microtitre broth dilution assays, indicating broader efficacy.

The invention relates to a method for the preparation of living, microbial samples and microorganisms for subsequent mass spectrometric measurement and evaluation. Findings which can be derived from such a measurement can particularly serve the faster identification of microorganisms in the microbial sample according to species/subspecies and/or the fast determination of resistance/sensitivity of the microorganisms to antimicrobial substances and/or the further characterization of microorganisms, for example in respect of pathogenicity, virulence and metabolism. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the preparation particularly takes place directly on a mass spectrometric sample support.